-Vermont Arts Council
I am the luckiest person in this room because Dona Ann McAdams is my friend. You don’t often get to be friends with your heroes. Fifty years into her remarkable career she is still capturing indelible images of art, politics, and community.
As the house photographer for P.S. 122 in New York, she was revered by artists as a collaborator who could illuminate their art beyond the stage. This body of work won her Obie and Bessie Awards.
In the ‘90s, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Ron Athey and others became flashpoints in the Culture Wars. Dona had photographed them all. Despite intense pressure (and financial incentives), she protected their images from being sensationalized in conservative media.
Dona is also a street activist, an engaged social agitator capturing queer liberation, ACT UP, antinuclear, and pro-choice protests in the ‘80s and '90s. This agit-prop sensibility continues today with photos of Christine Hallquist in a Pride Parade, Black Lives Matters marches, and anti-Trump protests outside the White House.
Her portraits of people living with mental illness, rural farmers, cloistered nuns, and backstretch workers demonstrate her profound empathy with her subjects, illuminating the joy and dignity in these “unseen communities.”
Moving to Sandgate in ‘98 with her husband writer Brad Kessler, neighboring farmers and their work animals became her camera’s focus, along with documenting the backside at Saratoga Racetrack.
She invites the viewer into the particularity of place and the innate humanity of the people she captures. She never stages photographs, never “move there” or “look this way.” Yet her framing is flawless with the edges as essential as the center.
And her majestic portraits of animals: horses, cows, dogs, and her beloved goats! When Green Mountain College decided to put one of a pair of oxen down after an injury, animal rights activists protested. So, what did Dona do? She went into the pasture with Lou and Bill producing a beautiful depiction of elegance and power — another political act with a social conscience.
I love Dona, her politics, and her aesthetics. One of my career highlights was curating “Dona Ann McAdams: Performative Acts,” that toured to Brattleboro, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, Stowe, and Bennington.
At 71, Dona is not slowing down. She’s still shooting with her Leica cameras and printing resplendent black-and-white images in an analog darkroom. She’s old school indeed, but not nostalgic – most excited about what she is filming today and planning for tomorrow.
Last year Saint Lucy Books published BLACK BOX: A Photographic Memoir. Brattleboro’s Vermont Center for Photography and Pratt Institute’s Manhattan Gallery presented companion exhibitions.
This summer, she was once again ensconced at Saratoga Racetrack. And ask her about Lincoln’s hat at Hildene. Her work is currently on view at The Current with another exhibition opening next month at UVM and one being developed for here at Southern Vermont Arts Center next year.
This is indeed Dona Ann McAdams’ time. I am thrilled she has been recognized with the 2025 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.